When we emerged from our rim-to-rim trek through the Grand Canyon it was cold and windy, and there was too much snow on the ground for us to hike on the Arizona Trail (AZT). We had 76 more trail miles to reach the red cliffs of the Utah border and a shuttle pick-up there in 4 1/2 days’ time.
After six days and 103 miles of hiking the Arizona Trail from Flagstaff, Arizona, we arrived at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim only to be confronted with an adverse weather report. Once we hiked down, we had to come back up. The question was where – the South Rim or the North Rim?
During our first week hiking along the northern-most section of the Arizona Trail, we passed through a ranch area along winding dirt roads. It is a relatively dry terrain, and much of our daily distance was dictated by the availability of water sources.
As we prepare for our Trekking the U.S. West adventure this summer, we have been focused on our gear. Taking into account the lessons we learned from hiking the PCT three years ago, we have strived to review every backpacking item to lighten our load. If we aren’t going to use something extensively, it stays home.
With our goal of finishing the entire PCT in 2019, we decided to complete a missing piece of trail that we needed to detour around three years ago. It is a challenging section, climbing over 7,000 feet in elevation from the desert sand to the forest snow.
Sandy introduces this year’s adventure – 1,000 miles of trekking in the Western United States on the Pacific Crest Trail and Arizona Trail!
Earlier this year we undertook our latest journey: a Trekking Europe adventure. During our travels we hiked over 500 miles in seven countries. Take a look at our summary video.
This summer, we trekked over 500 miles on four different long distance hikes in seven European countries. Even though we have now trekked over 3,000 miles in the past six years, I am always learning new things while hiking. So I wanted to share the twelve things I discovered this summer while on our Trekking the Planet Europe journey.
Beginning back on June 17, we took our first steps on our Trekking Europe adventure, as we left Porto, Portugal, on the Camino Portugues. Now, after completing that trek and two others in France and Germany / Austria, we had just five days left on our latest hike across Switzerland.
The Swiss Alps are comprised of some of the most iconic mountains in the world. After completing the first six days of our Swiss Alpine Pass Route trek, beginning from Liechtenstein, we were ready to hike among some of these giants during our next 10 day section into the heart of the Alps.
The 230-mile Swiss Alpine Pass Route hike, by far the most challenging of our Trekking Europe adventure, crosses numerous alpine passes, alternating between climbing up mountainsides and descending to valleys. Over the first six days of the trek, we crossed three passes. Each one was different, and we quickly learned to take the passes one at a time.
Two months into our Trekking Europe journey, Sandy writes about how our gear has held up to the goal of keeping our weight to a minimum, yet satisfying all of our hiking and traveling needs.
